Coffered ceilings

[nightfighter]

Bob, you and I now have the luxury of working with top grade materials and doing the job right the first time. Many clients are looking for the cheap route, which ends up costing more in the end. You are in the build end. I am in the remodeling end, so I get to see a lot of crappy work... and crappy or sometimes incorrect materials they used. (Many of these homes are hundreds of years old. It is the more recent work that is crappy.) Fortunately I am now at a point where I can choose my jobs for the most part and definitely choose who I want to work for, or not. I will not do band aids. Period. Do it right, or call someone else.
I used to charge the same across the board, but when I do get into a situation now, I will tack a difficulty tax into the estimate.... Life is short from this vantage point and there are way too many hacks putting their names on trucks and getting work that they have no business doing....

[spence]

Originally Posted by nightfighter

Bob, you and I now have the luxury of working with top grade materials and doing the job right the first time. Many clients are looking for the cheap route, which ends up costing more in the end. You are in the build end. I am in the remodeling end, so I get to see a lot of crappy work... and crappy or sometimes incorrect materials they used. (Many of these homes are hundreds of years old. It is the more recent work that is crappy.)

News reports seem to suggest people don't event want to get into construction jobs these days...I wonder of the finer aspects of the trade will just die off or become so expensive only the wealthy can afford them. It might already be this way now.

My master stairs are almost 160 years old and aside from a few tweaks needed looks as good as new. Neighbor's was made by the same guy a few years earlier and looks even better.

[Rmarsh]

Originally Posted by nightfighter

Bob, you and I now have the luxury of working with top grade materials and doing the job right the first time. Many clients are looking for the cheap route, which ends up costing more in the end. You are in the build end. I am in the remodeling end, so I get to see a lot of crappy work... and crappy or sometimes incorrect materials they used. (Many of these homes are hundreds of years old. It is the more recent work that is crappy.) Fortunately I am now at a point where I can choose my jobs for the most part and definitely choose who I want to work for, or not. I will not do band aids. Period. Do it right, or call someone else.
I used to charge the same across the board, but when I do get into a situation now, I will tack a difficulty tax into the estimate.... Life is short from this vantage point and there are way too many hacks putting their names on trucks and getting work that they have no business doing....

Yeah Ross...our industry has no qualifying standards.....nowadays anybody who straps on a tool belt calls themselves a carpenter.
I think you are right to tack on a difficulty tax........some customers you can tell going in that they will be difficult....I use to add money to cover something I call the ashhole quotient.

[Slipknot]

Originally Posted by Rmarsh

Yeah Ross...our industry has no qualifying standards.....nowadays anybody who straps on a tool belt calls themselves a carpenter.

Kind of like canal fishing